Artistic Fashion
by Cosmic Rainbow
Summary: Natsu has admired Lucy for years, and now he's putting his artistic abilities into real work. But he only has one month to finish a A1 drawing that would normally take 3 months. [NaLu.] [AU.]
1. Chapter 1

**Artistic Fashion**

**Natsu has admired Lucy for years, and now he's putting his artistic abilities into real work. But he only has one month to finish a A1 drawing that would normally take 3 months.**

* * *

**Right, yes, I know _Fairy of Gold _ain't updated yet, but I'll update it soon, trust me.  
**

**So, I don't own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

The clock was ticking, and sweat was dripping down his forehead.

He knew the other team was powerful, and usually hard to beat, therefore, he had to think - fast. He quickly bounced the ball once more before he dashed to the left, where no one on the opposite team stood on the court. Following that action, he ran toward the net.

Everything was somewhat going slow motion for him; he didn't know why. No matter how fast he moved his legs, the tempo of his world wouldn't go any faster.

He slowly went, his feet screeching against the polished maple, as he arrived at the three point line.

He bounced the ball once more, before he held it one hand.

But that was before it was taken from him by the opposite team. He took in a sharp breath, and the audience started booing.

He spun with lightning speed, the normal speed of the world now with him.

"Shit!" he yelled, before running across the court, determined to grab the ball back.

This is Gray Fullbuster, one of the most professional basketball player in Fairy Tail Academy. And, for some odd reason, one of the densest. Other than that flaw, he's in the top 10.

* * *

Gray threw his shirt onto the floor. "Oh my - ! God damn it! Why didn't we - ? Life is just - ! Argh!" He ruffled his dark hair, his head falling into his hands. "Sorry," he said. "I screwed up. We... I... Sorry guys, I... I need five minutes." He sighed before getting up, leaving the rest of the basketball team behind, as he went outside for fresh air.

"Oh, God," he breathed. He inhaled and exhaled, before he started hearing slow, even timid, steps coming from behind.

He slightly turned his body, but fully turned his head. The person, a female to be specific, squeaked and hid herself, causing Gray to chuckle slightly.

"C'mon, I don't bite, yeah? No need to be afraid, I ain't angry or anythin' 'bout the match," he joked, slowly holding his hand out.

The girl slowly revealed herself. She had a nice body, for a start, and she also had blue locks that reached her shoulders, maybe below.

The basketball player shot her a smile, and she immediately went bright red.

Gray raised a brow, a smile still playing on his lips. "What's your name? My name's - " he cut himself off, and laughed quietly. "You should know, as you look like a fan of me."

The girl shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, keeping her mouth shut.

Gray sighed. "Right. You want an autograph? Sure, just gimme whatever you have."

The girl was about to walk over to the basketball player, but another male appeared behind.

"Gray, what the hell is wrong with you, man? You said five minutes and it's been almost half an hour, dude."

Gray waved a hand toward him. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there, mate. Just gimme a few more minutes. Go ahead to the bar without me."

The male shrugged. "Whatever you say."

He walked off, as Gray's dark eyes trailed back to the girl in front of her, but she was gone.

The basketball player sighed. "Agh, whatever." He started to walk back inside, as the blue-haired fangirl frowned slightly.

* * *

Heels clicked against the tile floor, as the woman who owned those heels had an angry look on her face. For a fact, she did not like to be waiting for someone, especially if that someone is her boyfriend.

The door then flung open, revealing a somewhat smartly but messily dressed male who had blue hair.

The woman craned her neck to face him and enveloped him in deep conversation.

"Yes, but... " the woman said.

"Maybe so, but we... " the man then said.

The woman changed her body language from time to time as she conversed with the blue-haired male. One point she was standing with her arms crossed across her chest, then her hand was planted on her waist, as a smile was somewhat plastered on her lips.

"Please, we just need to do this just one. At this rate, Ultear will end up kicking me out and everything," the male complained.

The woman sighed, shaking her head. "All right. Fine. What do you need help with?"

This woman, you can say, is the scariest woman ever, if you didn't know her properly. But, to the people who do know her properly, like Gray (as he was a childhood friend of hers), you'd know that she absolutely loves strawberry cakes and is a girly-girl and is seriously in love with the blue-haired man standing in front of her. In general, she's a girly demon (?), and her name is...

Erza Scarlet.

The blue-haired male sat on the chair opposite Erza. He sighed and leaned back.

"So, Erza," he breathed. "What do we do about Natsu?"

The woman looked at him and smiled. "We'll think of something, don't worry."

* * *

Gray tapped his fingers on the back of the bench, sighs escaping his lips from time to time.

"Life sucks, don't it?" Someone sat opposite him and Gray stopped his rhythmic tapping to stare at the person who sat in front of him.

Loke Celeste, a fellow basketball player (also in the Top 10, above Gray, somehow) sat in front of him, a smile on his lips.

The dark-haired male groaned. "Shut up. Life is so much better without that darn demon."

Loke laughed. "Gray, if she heard you, you'd probably be dead meat right now, and be in the ground."

The said student was ready to batter Loke, anytime, any day.

"You!" he yelled, pointing at him and standing up. "Shut up and eat yer lunch! I bet my basketball shirt that Erza's gonna come in and kill you if you don't start eating this very moment!"

The room went silent.

"Gray Fullbuster."

The said man froze, unsure whether he should sit back down or stay stood up.

Heels were then heard, as everyone stayed silent, definitely not wanting to help Gray from the mess or go against this upcoming wrath.

The clicking of heels stopped, and Gray was still unsure whether to sit down or not.

"Gray," Erza repeated, in a somewhat less stern tone. Everyone, even Gray, sighed a sigh of relief.

"What's up, Erza?" Gray sat back down, and glanced at her.

The woman gave him a quick glare and planted her hands on her waist. "You should really be more careful of what you say."

"What do you mean - "

Erza narrowed her eyes at him. "You know what I mean, Fullbuster," she hissed, and that shut him up quite simply.

Erza shook her head in disbelief. "Boys these days," she muttered under her breath, turning on her heel and walking out.

Then, the uproar and pandemonium started up again.

* * *

It was 3 in the afternoon, and most of the classrooms were completely empty, with only empty chairs and desks left behind.

But then there was this one classroom with their door closed.

Press your ear to it, you'll probably hear nothing but a few rustles and scratching. Not that there's an animal in there.

Then there was shouting.

"You should be..." A woman's voice.

"But seriously..." A male - possibly a student's - voice.

A few more muffled shouting was heard, and then the door swung open, revealing a male student with...

Black hair.

* * *

**Well, this chapter is pretty short but I think I did pretty good. By the way, if you were wondering, I don't proofread, so if anyone could PM of any grammar, spelling etc. errors, I'll... dunno, give you free virtual cookies? Otherwise I'll get Erza on your ass.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, here's chapter two...**

**Chapter 11 of _Fairy of Gold _is progressing. Slowlyyy. Patience is the key. Usually.**

**Also, BEWARE OF FUCKING OOC! AND I DON'T OWN ANYTHING THAT PROBABLY MIGHT BE OR MIGHT NOT BE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY!**

**Wait, WTF, 'probably might be or might not be'...?**

* * *

The tall dude who stepped out of the classroom had spiky black hair that reached the middle of his back, and you could almost say that he looked like a freaking hedgehog, at first glance if you stood behind him.

Anyhow, the tall, black-haired man growled lowly, as a woman, about 7 years older than him, glared at him.

"Gajeel Redfox, you know you don't throw objects at other people, don't you?"

The guy, who was said to be called Gajeel, gave out a small 'tch' and crossed his arms, his red eyes narrowing and would possibly burn holes in the wall opposite him if he had superpowers.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Miss Milkovich," he sighed, trying to make his voice sound as rude as possible, but with a blue-haired girl walking past as she was into such a book, it was hard to keep his attitude the same.

Miss Milkovich sighed, shaking her head, as her dark purple hair swayed from side to side. "Well, you can go and see Ms. Porlyusica."

Gajeel froze, but then sighed, and walked forward, before turning to his left, strolling down the hall with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

* * *

The girl that Gajeel saw walking through the hall was the most popular girl's best friend and fellow bookworm, Levy McGarden.

She's sweet and all that, but can be scary, if you didn't know her.

Right now, she was engrossed in a book.

_The Hunger Games_.

If you ever ask her about it, she'll tell you everything about it. 100 percent sure.

Then there's the "most popular girl", and Levy's fellow bookworm, as mentioned above.

It's pretty much easy to spot her, if you wanted to spot her, since she was surrounded by students from all different grades.

But other than that way of spotting her, there is no other way.

Moving away from the "Miss Popular", there was then her "bodyguard", Sting Eucliffe.

He was tempted to punch every male who got close to the woman, but she held him back with words.

Sting, however, wasn't always around the woman, because, well, he had other friends, like people called Rogue Cheney and Rufus Lohr.

He also owned two cats; Lector and Frosch, which he and Rogue look after, as they live in the same building.

Anyhow, Sting was seriously in love with the popular woman, but, for some reason, she didn't show any interest in him.

At all.

And that's what sort of disappointed Sting. _Sort of_.

Truth be told, Sting was in love with a girl as well, Yukino Aguria. It's like, unrequited love*, in a way.

But there was also another woman, Minerva Orland. She's cruel to just about everybody, and then there's that all she cares about is pretty much beauty and "the best of the best".

Well, luckily she went to Sabertooth and not Fairy Tail, otherwise there would be a literal war going on for the "most beautiful woman".

But Sting didn't like Minerva as much as Yukino and Miss Popular, therefore, he crossed Minerva off the list, leaving only the two there.

Speaking of Rogue, the said male was walking down the corridor, with a something-that-looked-like-a-notebook book in hand.

* * *

He peered over the top of the book he was reading, the back of Sting's head facing him as he talked with Miss Popular.

"Sting," he called from behind the book. The said student turned around, and quickly apologized to the woman, before turning toward Rogue.

"What's up?" he casually asked.

The black-haired man dug through his bag, pulling out an envelope and giving it to the blonde, his lips pressed together tightly.

Sting rose a brow at him, but took the envelope, opening it as his blue eyes jumped between Rogue's unchanging face and the envelope.

He pulled out what was inside, unfolding it and scanning it.

There, at the very top, said...

_Congratulations, you have been accepted into Sabertooth Academy_

Sting growled, throwing the letter and envelope onto the floor, making eye contact with his childhood friend.

"Rogue," he growled. "What did you do?"

The said man shook his head, exhaling as he did.

Sting clenched his teeth. "This is all Minerva's doing! Why the fuck is she doing this? To us? If she didn't interfere, I would've..." he trailed off, his blue eyes narrowing.

Rogue shook his head. "It's no use, Sting. We have to go to Sabertooth, otherwise our apartment..." he trailed off, sighing and shaking it.

Sting took in a sharp breath.

He turned on his heel and stalked over to Miss Popular, who was now, quite literally, crowded by students.

"Hey!" he hollered. "Get away, bastards!"

* * *

Minerva chuckled.

"That's good. Sting and Rogue are both starting at Sabertooth. I wonder how Sting's dear Miss Popular will cope. Don't you think, Yukino?"

The said female just nodded, her eyes holding slight guilt for Sting and Rogue, maybe Miss Popular as well.

"I think Sting and Rogue..." she thought for a moment. "I think they will be fine at Sabertooth, Minerva."

The dark-haired woman cracked a smile. "That's right. Those Fairies will be beaten down in the championship."

Yukino also cracked a smile - a nervous one. "Yes, they will."

* * *

Gray sighed, balancing a pencil on his nose at it fell, tilting his head forward as it was tilted backward (**well, _no_!**).

"This is shit," he commented, as he stared at the paper that apparently was his homework.

He sighed once more, scratching the back of his head as he did.

"This is total shit," he repeated. "I seriously do not like this place, homework, classroom - argh!"

For the third time in 5 minutes, he sighed.

He heard the door of the classroom he was in creak open. He looked up, only to find the female he saw about 2 months ago standing there.

"You...?" he trailed off, raising a brow.

"A-Ah! I am Juvia... It is very nice to meet you, G-Gray-sama!"

Gray's confused expression then turned into what looked like amusement.

"'Gray-sama'? I'm sure I've never met anyone who's ever called me _that _before," he said, laughing a little.

The woman, who said to be called Juvia, smiled and blushed shyly.

"T-Thank you, Gray-sama."

The male grinned. But then it faltered slightly.

"Wait. This is the detention room. Why are you here?"

"Ah... Juvia will explain the reason to you, Gray-sama."

Gray nodded. "Sure. Go straight ahead; I have all day, afternoon, evening, whatever."

* * *

**This will do, right?**

**Anyhow... leave a review or something along those lines?**


	3. Chapter 3

**What have I got myself into...?**

**Please, don't answer that.**

**Anyway, chapter 3, here we are. I still gotta update _Fairy of Gold_...**

* * *

As far as Gray knew, the woman who was called Juvia kind of got into detention for yelling across the classroom about her love life.

Yeah, she even started babbling on about a guy called... Lyon?

Gray abruptly stood up from his seat as he remembered 'Lyon' being mentioned.

"That bastard!" he exclaimed.

Everyone went silent, and he heard the teacher clear their throat.

"Something wrong, Mr Fullbuster?"

Gray opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"N-Nothing, ma'am," he said, his voice shaking slightly as he sat back down ever so slowly.

The teacher, Miss Strauss, sighed and carried on talking to the rest, as Gray's mind slowly drifted away from the present day and time.

Lyon...

He knows he's heard that name before, but didn't know where or when.

"Lyon... Lyon... Lyon? Lyon..." he muttered over and over, his memory jogging as he attempted to remember who this Lyon was and why the fuck he didn't remember him.

Recess came around and Gray was _still_ trying to crack who Lyon was and why the fuck he didn't remember him. It was seriously bugging him now, so he decided to ask around school.

He went up to the receptionist, who was called Ul by everyone.

"Hey, Ul?" Gray asked, stopping in front of the counter as the older woman looked up at him, also starting to stand up.

"Ah," she breathed. "Gray, what are you doing here?"

He shrugged, before speaking. "I gotta ask you something."

She raised a brow, but nodded.

"Who's... Lyon?"

* * *

Ul had explained who Lyon was.

He was his half-brother.

"Oh, fuck life. I might as well commit suicide now. That Juvia chick is dating Lyon, but she's taken a liking to me and now I seriously don't know what to do."

He and Loke were currently eating lunch, though Gray wasn't _literally _eating lunch; he was continuously smashing his head on the table to get the thoughts of Lyon and Juvia together out of stupid, dumb head.

He's surely gonna have nightmares if he doesn't commit suicide.

Eventually, the basketball player stopped his attempt of trying to get Lyon out of his mind, and grabbed Loke's fork he was going to use to cut his food.

Gray inhaled and exhaled, holding the blade of the knife against his heart.

"I'm gonna commit suicide; don't try and stop me."

Loke didn't do anything but just blinked, a blank look on his face.

Gray pushed the knife, but nothing happened.

"What the - ?"

"The knife's plastic, buddy."

The dark-haired student cursed under his breath and threw the knife across the table, halting in front of Loke.

"Dammit. I was _so _close!"

Loke raised a brow at him, and sighed unbelievably.

Gray scowled, and suddenly caught sight of a boy walking nearby, which made him stop him scowling.

He narrowed his eyes, wanting to take a better look at him, but all he could tell was that he had pink hair. Well, he didn't know if it was even a guy.

* * *

The bell had already gone, but there was a boy sat in a chair in the middle of the classroom, scratching against the paper with his pencil, humming away as if nothing else actually existed.

However, he snapped out of his daydream when he heard the door to the classroom creak open.

"Uhm, is this Art Class 1-S?" a feminine voice asked.

The boy's eyes teared away from the paper, to make eye contact with the person.

He inwardly gasped, but his facial expression on the outside was still blank.

"Yeah, it is," he answered, finally.

The woman nodded, and sat on the chair on the other side of the table.

"I'm kind of looking for Natsu Dragneel..." she trailed off, biting her lip. "Do you know where he is?"

The boy blinked, before laughing.

He shook his head in disbelief, placing his pencil on the table.

"Y'know, you're talkin' to him right now," he said, a wide grin on his face, also showing sharp fangs.

The woman smiled as well, after recovering from shock that she was already talking to him.

The boy, who was said to be called Natsu, sighed blissfully, and his attitude completely changed, according to the woman.

"So, I've seen ya 'round school, never actually heard of ya before."

The woman giggled, and stuck out a hand. "Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

Natsu was about to shake it as well and re-introduce himself, but luckily stopped himself before actually touching her delicate and smooth-looking skin.

He sighed, and laughed once more, his light laughter filling the room.

"Sorry," he apologized when Lucy gave him a confused look. "It's just that I noticed at the last minute that, if I shook your hand, I would be re-introducing myself, which would kinda be a pain in the ass."

Her expression changed, and she shook her head and told him it was all right, as she also realized her mistake.

Natsu chuckled, but his expression then changed.

"Say, Lucy, I heard that Sting moved to Saber?"

He, personally, really didn't want to ask that question, but it came out anyway.

Lucy gave him a small 'Eh?' before she lowered her eyes, a pained look in her eyes.

Natsu started to panic.

Shit.

"Uh, well, you don't need to answer that question, really!" he exclaimed, his tone panicky.

Lucy smiled at him, but the smile she gave him was a sad one.

"It's all right," she whispered. "Sting moved to Sabertooth, along with Rogue. I'm not sure about Rufus, but I know for sure that Sting and Rogue moved."

Natsu nodded, before silence enveloped them once more.

The pink-haired boy then spoke up. "Say, what are you doing, looking for me anyway?"

That caught her attention.

"Well," she started, her facial expression changing from time to time, as she thought about her answer. "It's hard to explain, but I heard from other students that you take requests, and I was wondering if you could do something for me," she explained. "But I'm going to give it to a friend," she quickly added.

Natsu nodded, before humming a short tune.

"Well, my schedule is gettin' kinda full, but I think I'll be able to slot you in somewhere."

The woman gave him a smile. "Thanks," she said, standing up. "Well, I'll be going now; I have to meet Levy in the library. Catch you later!"

* * *

Natsu was thinking seriously as he made his way home. He knew his art schedule was practically full, but he had to slot Lucy in _somewhere_.

"Maybe I'll cancel Gray's request and replace that slot with Lucy's..."

He continued mumbling to himself, and only realized he arrived home when his head hit the front door.

"Crap," he muttered, rubbing the sore spot and unlocking it, swinging the door open.

"I'm home!" he then yelled, as if nothing happened at all in the first place.

* * *

**Natsu is finally introduced! I might end up properly introducing Rufus, but then again, probably not.**


End file.
